1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image sending apparatus requiring authentication for use of the apparatus and a function provided therein, and an authentication method in the image sending apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known an image sending apparatus allowing an authenticated user to use a specific function provided in the apparatus such as the send function or the print function. Hereinafter, the term “function authentication” is used to refer to user authentication performed to allow or limit use of a specific function provided in an apparatus.
Further, some image sending apparatuses have the function of sending image data to a network folder (shared folder) with use of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol or another protocol. When a user uses this function of an image sending apparatus, authentication to access a specified folder may be required of the user, depending on the setting of a file server that offers the network folder.
On the other hand, for example, there is known the Single Sign-On (hereinafter referred to as “SSO”) technique used in a personal computer, as a technique for enabling authentication required at a login to use a personal computer, to be automatically inherited to authentication required to access a folder. Use of this technique also enables the device authentication or the function authentication in an image sending apparatus to be inherited to authentication for a specified folder.
Further, even without use of the SSO technique, it is possible to apparently emulate the SSO technique by applying the technique for presetting a username and password used in prior authentication, to a screen of later authentication, as discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-186849.
In most cases, the SSO technique is interactively used at a personal computer. If a user is successfully authenticated in authentication processing to log in a personal computer but fails to be authenticated in later authentication to access a folder, the personal computer displays an authentication screen prompting the user to enter a username and password at this time. Then, the user can enter a correct username and password to access the folder when the screen is displayed. On the other hand, when performing the send function at an image sending apparatus, first, a user sets destinations and authentication information for each destination, and then later, the personal computer performs authentication processing and send processing for each destination. Therefore, it is highly likely that a user does not stay in front of an image sending apparatus when authentication fails in the send processing that is performed at a later time. Obviously, it is impossible to enter correct authentication information without presence of the user in front of the image sending apparatus.
Further, the above-mentioned application of the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-186849 requires a display of an authentication screen and presetting of the username and password entered in the prior authentication to the authentication screen each time a destination is specified. If login authentication and authentication to access a certain folder are managed in an integrated fashion, a user should be rather annoyed by the authentication screen appearing every time. Examples of this situation include image sending based on the function authentication performed by a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server to allow use of the send function, and acquisition of a folder path associated with this authentication from the same LDAP server to use the folder path as a send destination.
Further, it is possible that a folder shared by all users is registered in an address book together with a public username and a password, and a system administrator wants this registered information to be just used as it is for the send authentication when that folder is selected as a send destination. Conversely, another possible situation that, although a shared folder is registered in an address book, a system administrator wants a user to access that folder by using the username specified in the function authentication for the send function. In this way, uniformly setting whether to inherit authentication does not necessarily improve efficiency of user authentication.